Bedding that gives you trouble

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Bedding that gives you trouble

Unread postby Lockdown » Fri Mar 31, 2017 3:43 pm

Maybe this thread has been done before (feel free to post links), but I want to talk about your "worst" bedding area. By "worst" I mean toughest to hunt. What makes it the toughest?

Has it gotten the best of you every time you've set up for a kill? Maybe you can't catch him/them coming out on the right trail, or maybe you keep bumping satellite deer. :think: Maybe it gave you fits for years but you've finally figured it out. What was the puzzle piece that you were missing and what did it take to figure it out?

State what type of terrain its in and the features that give Mr. Big the advantage. Just thought it would be good discussion to hear each other's issues regarding those REALLY tough bedding areas.

Of course aerials or hand drawn pics would be an awesome addition to help each other learn.


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Re: Bedding that gives you trouble

Unread postby UofLbowhunter » Fri Mar 31, 2017 3:46 pm

This could turn out good! 8-). I havent done my first true beast hunt yet, but ready for some good info!
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Re: Bedding that gives you trouble

Unread postby Lockdown » Fri Mar 31, 2017 4:11 pm

UofLbowhunter wrote:This could turn out good! 8-). I havent done my first true beast hunt yet, but ready for some good info!


You know what... this could even include a certain property. Same principle 8-) Thanks for the comment UofL

Ever hunt an entire property that gave you trouble? :D

I know I have. Still have a few that do :lol: I'll chime in with mine in a day or two.
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Re: Bedding that gives you trouble

Unread postby dan » Fri Mar 31, 2017 8:59 pm

The obsession buck... For a couple years I always watched him bed in the same spot on a westerly wind. It was an open spot that I could not get near, or so I thought. I glassed that buck at that bedding area over and over and he never got far enough to kill without setting up in sight of his bed. When the wind changed midday thanksgiving day, I walked out on my family gathering and crawled up to his bed on my hands and knees and shot him right in the bed...

Here is a link for anyone who never heard the story:
viewtopic.php?f=159&t=1349
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Re: Bedding that gives you trouble

Unread postby Peeps22 » Fri Mar 31, 2017 11:00 pm

I always like stories like these. I do have one area that has given me grief. I did kill a nice buck out of there 2 years ago and thought i had it figured out. Then tried the same strategy this last fall and yeahhhh...

Back to the drawing board. :lol:

Ill try and post up a short story and map on that area soon.
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Re: Bedding that gives you trouble

Unread postby headgear » Sat Apr 01, 2017 1:31 am

Early season bedding gives me trouble. The bucks are often in the area they should be but the bedding is kind of random, I think with all the leaf cover and lack of pressure all summer they just don't bed where you often expect them too and I end up jumping them because they are bedded on my entrance route or where I want to setup or some other unexpected area that catches me by surprise. I have kind of learned to hang back a bit early season and it helps a little but I just need to figure them out a bit even if it is a long trial and error process.

The other is bedding with swirling winds which is often a lot of places I hunt and the bucks sure love those areas. The wind will be perfect and like clock work 100-200 yards out from a set you start getting nailed with wind from all directions. After a few years of this you start to figure it out but it can still be tricky, a lot of times that wind at you back ends up swirling again before it hits the bed so you have to be confident enough to push on through what you think is a terrible wind and get to the spot where it is more steady to setup. I think the bucks like to bed where they have a consistent wind and then stage up where the wind swirls, that way they can just sit in one spot and smell the wind from a couple of different directions, makes sense if you are a buck. Thermals of course play a roll in these areas too so on top of the wind, the swirls you have to be ready for that thermal to kick in at prime time, always fun and always a challenge.
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Re: Bedding that gives you trouble

Unread postby cedarsavage » Sat Apr 01, 2017 2:57 am

headgear wrote:Early season bedding gives me trouble. The bucks are often in the area they should be but the bedding is kind of random, I think with all the leaf cover and lack of pressure all summer they just don't bed where you often expect them too and I end up jumping them because they are bedded on my entrance route or where I want to setup or some other unexpected area that catches me by surprise. I have kind of learned to hang back a bit early season and it helps a little but I just need to figure them out a bit even if it is a long trial and error process.

The other is bedding with swirling winds which is often a lot of places I hunt and the bucks sure love those areas. The wind will be perfect and like clock work 100-200 yards out from a set you start getting nailed with wind from all directions. After a few years of this you start to figure it out but it can still be tricky, a lot of times that wind at you back ends up swirling again before it hits the bed so you have to be confident enough to push on through what you think is a terrible wind and get to the spot where it is more steady to setup. I think the bucks like to bed where they have a consistent wind and then stage up where the wind swirls, that way they can just sit in one spot and smell the wind from a couple of different directions, makes sense if you are a buck. Thermals of course play a roll in these areas too so on top of the wind, the swirls you have to be ready for that thermal to kick in at prime time, always fun and always a challenge.

I have the same exact problems. Do you mind posting an areal example of how you handle the swirl
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Re: Bedding that gives you trouble

Unread postby cbay » Sat Apr 01, 2017 4:09 am

One in particular is a slow taper ridge of overgrown field around 15 acres with large body of water at the bottom. Lots of doe bedding in there and bucks from early oct. thru rut. Most of the bedding is low with evening movement going up in all directions. The overgrowth is around 12 years old now and is near impossible to sneak through without getting busted. Have yet to come in by water without getting winded or heard. Never connected on a buck in that piece but try every year. During primetime i've had chasing in there where the bucks will bounce around all over grunting but haven't been lucky enough to get one to stop...yet.
It's an interesting piece, but last year i intentionally over hunted it prior to primetime in hopes it would move the buck to the other side of the ridge. Don't know for sure it that helped but it sure didn't hurt - as the calculated move on the other side of the ridge worked out on the first sit.
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Re: Bedding that gives you trouble

Unread postby headgear » Sat Apr 01, 2017 6:58 am

cedarsavage wrote:I have the same exact problems. Do you mind posting an areal example of how you handle the swirl


Ok this is kind of crude drawing, the small lines are topographic, there are two ridges and in between them is a nice nasty swamp. The green lines are the transition and the green line in the center is kind of an interior transition where the tamaracks fade into some cattails/brush and then bog. Now when the wind changes everything else can change too but in general no matter the wind a lot of scent gets funneled down the middle of that valley into bedding (red dot) and no matter the wing direction there is a lot of swirling action near those ridges that freak me out. However if i can get out away from the ridges the swirls all but stop and you get more of a steady consistent wind. So as usually you have to get out away from those swirls and as close to the buck as possible. I have a few other places like this too, one is a ridge with a point of high ground, the swirls coming off the ridge hit you back as you move out towards the point but once you get past a certain point the wind takes over again and all is well. Even openings in the timber or swamp will cause swirling too, the bucks just seem to gravitate towards them. One area I hunt is kind of a large bowl and the wind just spins around in that thing, however if you get to the center a lot of times the wind can be steady.

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Re: Bedding that gives you trouble

Unread postby KLEMZ » Sat Apr 01, 2017 8:34 am

headgear wrote:The other is bedding with swirling winds which is often a lot of places I hunt and the bucks sure love those areas.


They sure do find the swirling wind areas while bedding and also while traveling. We all know whitetails are "creatures of the edge". I used to think it was because the transition was a natural navigation guide, and that they were using thicker vegetation, or the crest of the ridge, to hide their movements. While I still believe this, I think the MAIN reason deer use and travel along transitions is to take maximum advantage of the swirling winds and thermals that edges create..... for security.. by using their nose.

My single biggest bedding area challenge is getting busted by the buck smelling me after I have set up, due to my lack of fully understanding the air currents. I religiously use the milkweed to read what is happening, so I am getting better at finding the predictable wind/thermal areas, but it is taking me a long time to do learn this!
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Re: Bedding that gives you trouble

Unread postby <DK> » Sat Apr 01, 2017 10:33 am

My Issues - Early season bedding (thick, bugs, sweat), small property w little access, tough winds

My Solutions - bug proof cloths/less gear, rut only / precision attack, morning hunt/higher winds

I think one of the biggest issues I deal w (besides thermals) is bucks dropping straight down off the beds. Thats a tough gig, thanks to others helping I will try a few things this season.
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Re: Bedding that gives you trouble

Unread postby tgreeno » Sat Apr 01, 2017 12:46 pm

I'm not sure if this is off the subject or not. This is going to be my first season strictly "beast" style hunting. I have found a bunch of new bedding areas, and am still looking for more. My fears are: Will the beds I'm finding now hold mature bucks? When is the best time to hunt the beds I'm finding now?

I know being confident & "believing" the buck is there, every time I set-up on a bed, is a key to being successful. And I did do this last year when I set-up on a few beds, with no one home. But it is difficult, if you have never been successful at it before!
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Re: Bedding that gives you trouble

Unread postby UofLbowhunter » Sat Apr 01, 2017 2:42 pm

KLEMZ wrote:
headgear wrote:The other is bedding with swirling winds which is often a lot of places I hunt and the bucks sure love those areas.


They sure do find the swirling wind areas while bedding and also while traveling. We all know whitetails are "creatures of the edge". I used to think it was because the transition was a natural navigation guide, and that they were using thicker vegetation, or the crest of the ridge, to hide their movements. While I still believe this, I think the MAIN reason deer use and travel along transitions is to take maximum advantage of the swirling winds and thermals that edges create..... for security.. by using their nose.

My single biggest bedding area challenge is getting busted by the buck smelling me after I have set up, due to my lack of fully understanding the air currents. I religiously use the milkweed to read what is happening, so I am getting better at finding the predictable wind/thermal areas, but it is taking me a long time to do learn this!


Points takin- good post :text-goodpost:
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Re: Bedding that gives you trouble

Unread postby UofLbowhunter » Sat Apr 01, 2017 2:44 pm

headgear wrote:
cedarsavage wrote:I have the same exact problems. Do you mind posting an areal example of how you handle the swirl


Ok this is kind of crude drawing, the small lines are topographic, there are two ridges and in between them is a nice nasty swamp. The green lines are the transition and the green line in the center is kind of an interior transition where the tamaracks fade into some cattails/brush and then bog. Now when the wind changes everything else can change too but in general no matter the wind a lot of scent gets funneled down the middle of that valley into bedding (red dot) and no matter the wing direction there is a lot of swirling action near those ridges that freak me out. However if i can get out away from the ridges the swirls all but stop and you get more of a steady consistent wind. So as usually you have to get out away from those swirls and as close to the buck as possible. I have a few other places like this too, one is a ridge with a point of high ground, the swirls coming off the ridge hit you back as you move out towards the point but once you get past a certain point the wind takes over again and all is well. Even openings in the timber or swamp will cause swirling too, the bucks just seem to gravitate towards them. One area I hunt is kind of a large bowl and the wind just spins around in that thing, however if you get to the center a lot of times the wind can be steady.

Image


:text-bravo: like the pic helps see whats goin on!
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Re: Bedding that gives you trouble

Unread postby headgear » Mon Apr 03, 2017 2:16 am

tgreeno wrote:I'm not sure if this is off the subject or not. This is going to be my first season strictly "beast" style hunting. I have found a bunch of new bedding areas, and am still looking for more. My fears are: Will the beds I'm finding now hold mature bucks? When is the best time to hunt the beds I'm finding now?

I know being confident & "believing" the buck is there, every time I set-up on a bed, is a key to being successful. And I did do this last year when I set-up on a few beds, with no one home. But it is difficult, if you have never been successful at it before!


This is really the key to everything and sometimes the hardest info to get when you are starting out. Some spots take years to figure out depending on their location, other times you can glass them, find fresh in season sign, sometimes you find fresh sign but just happen to miss them. I can't tell you how many times I see tracks heading out of the bedding areas and the buck was there but moved on, if we know where they were hunting would be a thousand times easier but it also makes the chase all the more fun. I will try and post some examples below.

I have one early season spot that is nice and remote, they bed on some small points and oaks are nearby, I have to cross a 300 yard beaver dam to get there. Just your classic bedding location, the bucks use the general area most of the season but you still have to catch them there. Maybe they bed there 7 days a week, maybe 1, really hard to tell without over pressuring the area and its too thick to glass. Now come rut time the bucks move, they bed on a different point off the beaver dam. The does will bed on either side of the dam and the buck can sit there and smell any traffic crossing the beaver dam. They probably use to sit there and smell me cross the beaver dam and either hang tight or take off into the huge swamp behind them. Took a little while to figure this out but jumping a buck one time tipped me off.

Speaking of jumping a buck I know one poster here just went in a burned up areas during the season at different times of the year to figure out bedding, sure you mess up the bed that season (maybe/maybe not) but you can gain a huge amount of into for the future. Some of my best spots have come from jumping bucks and learning everything I can from that experience.

Other spots I have are more pressure and rut related, they are just cold most of the year but once the pressure is up they start getting used late Oct into early Nov. In season scouting and some trial & error led me to this conclusion. Now a just leave them be and if I have time I might line up 2-3 spots and if I find fresh sign I hunt it, sometimes you don't find the fresh sign but because of time and distance you end up hunting it anyway, just because you don't find sign doesn't me they are not there, I have still had encounters or shot bucks with little to no sign.

Other spots yet seem amazing but they are different. I have one particular island that is super remote, covered in beds every year and has dozens of fresh rubs. No way to confirm the goods until you get there so you just have to hunt it and see what happens. I have tried early season, mid season, rut, late season and I have never seen or jumped a single deer out there or even found the fresh sign I was looking for. It was a real head scratcher, then I started to wonder if the sign was made during rifle season. The whole area gets pounded pretty good but no one is out on this island because it is real pain to get to, I figure the rifle pressure pushes a lot of deer out there and they are safe to rut it up and tear up the area. I am generally hunting with my dad and son a couple hours away so I don't get to tackle this spot when I should be there. Now I can't say for certain if I am right but after 6 years of hunting this area that is my best theory.

You just have to figure out the when and everything else seems easy. Getting to when doesn't have to be hard but sometimes can take years, but diving in during the season can be a shortcut if you aren't worried about burning the area up. There are a lot of ways to get to the "when" you just have to find what works for you in your specific area, every terrain is so different so you need take that into consideration as well.


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